Give us a reason to come home’: Irish nurses hold rally at Sydney Opera House

More than 250 Irish nurses gathered at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday to urge the Irish Government to increase pay and “give us a reason to come home.”

The group in Australia came out to show its support for nurses and midwives in Ireland who are going on strike on January 30th over pay and conditions.

Irish nurse Laura Phillips said the pay in Ireland is “not competitive” and that hundreds of Irish-trained nurses working in Australia will not come home until salaries improve.

More from the Irish Times

An investigation into compassion fatigue and self-compassion in acute medical care hospital nurses: a mixed methods study

Article highlight:

An investigation into compassion fatigue and self-compassion in acute medical care hospital nurses: a mixed methods study:

Abstract

Background

In the acute medical care hospital setting, nursing the sick and dying is both physically and emotionally demanding, making acute medical care hospital nurses more vulnerable to Compassion Fatigue (CF) or Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS). If not addressed in its earliest stages, CF can adversely change the caregiver’s ability to provide compassionate care. It has been shown that Self-Compassion (SC) can be beneficial for the caregiver, with corresponding benefits for the individual needing care. However, the relationship of this attribute to CF in the acute medical care hospital nursing setting has not been intensively studied. This study explores the environmental and psychosocial factors affecting the prevalence and levels of CF in acute medical care hospital nursing staff and whether SC can be used as a coping strategy that enables nurses to mitigate the prevalence and levels of CF.

See Full Article at: Journal of Compassionate Health Care

The 3 habits of calm: TV doctor on how to reduce stress

Dr Rangan Chatterjee has seen first-hand how stress affects his patients - and has found simple but effective methods to help them. Here he describes how small changes can help you to lead a more fulfilled and calmer life.

When we consider stress, we don't usually think of meaning and purpose. But living a life that's devoid of these qualities is inherently stressful. I'd even go as far as to say that the single best way of living a calmer, happier life is to do it with a strong sense of purpose. But what do I mean by 'purpose'? One way of thinking about it is as living your life on purpose.

People with a strong sense of purpose enjoy significantly better health compared to those who don't, including less likelihood of developing heart disease, strokes and depression. Research also shows that they sleep better and live longer.

Perhaps more crucially, though, people with a sense of purpose live happier lives.

But here's the problem. In order to find out who we are and what our purpose is, and then begin to change our lives, we need time. And time is precisely the thing that the modern world is stealing from us.

Read more at Independent: Life: Health & Wellbeing